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Smock corn mill in use
Smith's Mill was a smock mill used for corn milling at Willingham.
Site overview
Smith's Mill was a smock corn mill at Willingham in Cambridgeshire. The surviving site is recorded as the base of the former mill rather than a complete windmill. The mill is also associated in photographic records with the Old Mill or Ingle's Mill identification, reflecting the close grouping and changing names of Willingham's smock mills.
Photographs from the mid twentieth century record the site after the loss of the full smock structure, with the base visible in July 1950 and again in May 1975. Its present character is that of a reduced former corn mill site, preserving the visible base of a wind-powered smock mill within the Willingham village landscape.
Map
Map markers and directions links are provided for location reference only and do not indicate public access or permission to enter a site.
No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.
History
Smith's Mill was one of Willingham's smock corn mills. It is identified in specialist mill records as a smock mill used for corn milling, with the present survival described as the base of the former structure. The site is also linked in photographic records with the Old Mill or Ingle's Mill name, a useful indication of the naming complexity among Willingham's historic windmills.
The complete working mill had disappeared before the later photographic record. By July 1950 the visible remains were recorded as the surviving base only, and a further photographic record in May 1975 again showed the base rather than a complete mill body. The remaining structure therefore belongs to the post-working phase of the site, after the loss of the sails, cap, smock body, and working form of the mill.
Smith's Mill is now best understood as a reduced survival of a former wind-powered smock corn mill. The base preserves the site of Willingham's milling activity, while the documentary and photographic record links the remains to the village's wider group of nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century windmill sites.
Timeline
1950
Surviving base photographed
The former smock mill was photographed in July 1950 as a surviving base only.
1975
Base recorded again
The surviving base of the former smock mill was recorded again in May 1975.
Sources and records
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive site record
English Windmills Photographic Register
List of windmills in Cambridgeshire
Mills Archive site record
English Windmills Photographic Register
List of windmills in Cambridgeshire